The Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets (HDCMS) will hold the the 2008 “Taste of Dupont,” a pre-even to the 17th Street High Heel Race tomorrow night, Tuesday, October 28, 6 to 9 p.m., at the Carlyle Suites Hotel. Tickets are $65 and can be purchased online.

Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets is proud to announce that tickets are now on sale for the 2008 Taste of Dupont. Last Year, over 250 attendees dined on superb culinary treats from local restaurants. The fare included scallops, lamb, oyster shots, beef tenderloin, salmon rolls and much, much more! Join HDCMS to celebrate our excellent restaurants and art institutions and help to name our 2008 Chef of the Year!

The annual Halloween High Heel Race, the original creation of JR’s Bar and Grill, is next Tuesday, October 28. I have lived in DC for almost 16 years and remember when this was mostly a neighborhood event. Not so anymore.

In fact, my partner and I sometimes don’t go because the crowds are simply too big and it is almost impossible to navigate your way through the thousands of revelers on 17th Street NW between Church and R, let alone see the costumes or the actual race. (Or perhaps I have just become a middle-aged old poop.) Still, it’s a good time and we are hoping for nice weather for next Tuesday evening.

You KNOW that what was formerly an event for the neighborhood and DC’s gay community has gone truly mainstream when the Washington Post lists the event in its City Guide of things-to-do. If you need more proof, this year’s sponsor is the Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets Program, the beneficiary of this year’s proceeds, according to the Washington City Paper.

If the weather is bad on Tuesday evening and you don’t feel like fighting the crowds, here are some video clips from previous years on YouTube–here and here.

Here’s the Post listing for 2008:

Traditionally held on the Tuesday before Halloween, this annual neighborhood event features elaborately costumed drag queens racing down 17th Street (from Q to Church streets) and attracts a large crowd eager to cheer them on.

The race begins at 9, but the real fun takes place before the main event, as the contestants parade up and down the race course showing off their outfits.

To get a street-side seat at an on-course cafe like JR’s or the Fox & Hounds, stake out your spot by 6. (There’s plenty of space along the sidewalk, though crowds often block the view.) The informal block party continues long after the last Mary Jane (size 13 EE) crosses the finish line.

Historian, Paul Williams has been researching Dupont Circle houses and their occupants for more than fifteen years. During that period he has uncovered everything from the mundane to the outright bizarre, with murders, sex scandals, exploitive divorces, and society curses! You may think that youths throwing eggs on Halloween night, public drunkenness and live music are more recent events, but Williams will present evidence of these scandalous and shocking events that have been happening in Dupont Circle for well more than 120 years!

Williams is a graduate in Historic Preservation from Roger Williams and Cornell University, and is currently serving as the Executive Director of Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets.